The Zika Zeitgeist: What You Must Know

As health officials prepare to formally release genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys this fall, one former Food and Drug Administration senior medical officer says it may help — at some point. But Zika is still coming.

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Eleven states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico already face more than 50 confirmed cases of Zika each. Zika was upgraded on Friday to a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, Texas saw the country’s first death from the virus last week, and Louisiana is bracing for an outbreak after tremendous flooding in the region.

“It’s going to permeate every state in the very near future,” said Dr. David Gortler, now a pharmacology expert and FDA policy expert at FormerFDA.com.

“The problems are going to start right now. It’s going to spread. People talk about microcephaly for the children, but it’s a whole cornucopia of neurological birth defects that can occur — and these babies will cost tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars to raise, whether they’re Americans or they’re here from another country or they’re legal or illegal. It’s going to be an enormous health care and taxpayer burden,” Gortler told LifeZette.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Zika a silent epidemic in a JAMA article last week.

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“For the public health community, Zika represents an unprecedented emergency,” Frieden wrote. “Never before, to our knowledge, has a mosquito-borne virus been associated with human birth defects or been capable of sexual transmission. The effects of brain damage due to microcephaly and consequences of other Zika-related birth defects are likely devastating, lifelong, and costly.”

The genetically modified Zika-killing mosquitoes slated to be released in the Keys, pending approval of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, are the first of their kind. They would “kill off much of the local mosquito population by passing on a gene fatal to any offspring they have with wild females,” popsci.com reported. Oxitec, the global biotech company behind the research, is set to release thousands of them in the Keys.

Related: Rushing for a Zika Vaccine

The FDA earlier this month released an environmental assessment, stating it “will not have significant impacts on the environment.” The locals aren’t buying it, however, stating they feel like lab rats. About half of the yards in Key Haven are host to signs that state, “NO CONSENT,” according to Guardian.com. And an online petition started by a real estate agent in the Keys now hosts more than 170,000 signatures to prevent the mosquitoes’ release.

Regardless of any mosquito population control measures, Gortler said he lives in Arizona, and even he wears long pants right now, long socks, and a long-sleeved shirt. He emphasized men, as much as women, need to understand their risk.

“This is an emerging problem that has to be nipped in the bud,” said a former FDA senior medical officer.

“Males may think they’re exempt from having to worry about this, but there’s good data to show it can be sexually transmitted. And they can still get things like Guillain-Barré — which is a very, very serous condition. You basically lose all ability to use any of your muscles. Your nerves don’t transmit any signals to make your muscles function. And then, of course, there’s microcephaly. People have to realize — these babies will require a lifetime of care, and illegal immigrants who come here and give birth in this country to these children — those people will be [a] taxpayer burden forever. There will be entire cities of these children that won’t have a normal life or normal functionality,” said Gortler.

What we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, he added. And he also wouldn’t trust the efficacy or safety of a vaccine rushed to combat Zika.

“It’s very upsetting [that] lawmakers are on vacation. I’m biased because I study disease and I’m former FDA, but one of the things we take very seriously are emerging threats,” Gortler said.

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“It just goes to show you that none of those guys have a science background — they’re not listening to data, and they’re not in touch with the real problems Americans face. I can understand how people are more concerned about the economy, terrorism, and illegal immigration, but this is an emerging problem which has to be nipped in the bud,” said Gortler. “It has to be addressed right now, before it becomes much worse. This is already pretty bad but it can still be logarithmically worse that it already is.”